"Bridges": Private business, the Chinese government and the rise of new associations

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 147, 1996, Pages 795-819

  Unger, Jonathan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0000708342     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0305741000051808     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. An excellent discussion of this new phenomenon is Gordon White, "Prospects for civil society in China: a case study of Xiaoshan city," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 29 (January 1993), pp. 63-87; also see White's Riding the Tiger: The Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), esp. pp. 225-29. An informative Chinese-language source is Wang Ying, Zhe Xiaoye and Sun Bingyao, Zhongguo shehui zhongjian ceng: gaige yu Zhongguode shetuan zuzhi (The Intermediary Level of Chinese Society: Reform and China's Associational Organizations) (Beijing: Zhongguo fazhan chubanshe, 1993).
2. An excellent discussion of this new phenomenon is Gordon White, "Prospects for civil society in China: a case study of Xiaoshan city," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 29 (January 1993), pp. 63-87; also see White's Riding the Tiger: The Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), esp. pp. 225-29. An informative Chinese-language source is Wang Ying, Zhe Xiaoye and Sun Bingyao, Zhongguo shehui zhongjian ceng: gaige yu Zhongguode shetuan zuzhi (The Intermediary Level of Chinese Society: Reform and China's Associational Organizations) (Beijing: Zhongguo fazhan chubanshe, 1993).
3. An excellent discussion of this new phenomenon is Gordon White, "Prospects for civil society in China: a case study of Xiaoshan city," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 29 (January 1993), pp. 63-87; also see White's Riding the Tiger: The Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), esp. pp. 225-29. An informative Chinese-language source is Wang Ying, Zhe Xiaoye and Sun Bingyao, Zhongguo shehui zhongjian ceng: gaige yu Zhongguode shetuan zuzhi (The Intermediary Level of Chinese Society: Reform and China's Associational Organizations) (Beijing: Zhongguo fazhan chubanshe, 1993).
4. As of 1993, 1,400 such national associations were registered with the central government; 19,600 organizations and branches of organizations were registered with provincial authorities; and more than 160,000 were registered at county level (China Daily, 7 May 1993, p. 3).
5. Philippe C. Schinitter has devised a one-sentence core definition of corporatism that is often cited in papers on the topic: "Corporatism can be defined as a system of interest representation in which the constituent units are organized into a limited number of singular, compulsory, noncompetitive, hierarchically ordered and functionally differentiated categories, recognized or licensed (if not created) by the state and granted a deliberate representational monopoly within their respective categories in exchange for observing certain controls on their selection of leaders and articulation of demands and supports." Schmitter, "Still the century of corporatism?" in Fredrick B. Pike and Thomas Stritch (eds.), The New Corporatism: Social-Political Structures in the Iberian World (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), pp. 93-94. Also see Douglas A. Chalmers, "Corporatism and comparative politics," in Howard J. Wiarda (ed.), New Directions in Comparative Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), pp. 56-79.
6. Philippe C. Schinitter has devised a one-sentence core definition of corporatism that is often cited in papers on the topic: "Corporatism can be defined as a system of interest representation in which the constituent units are organized into a limited number of singular, compulsory, noncompetitive, hierarchically ordered and functionally differentiated categories, recognized or licensed (if not created) by the state and granted a deliberate representational monopoly within their respective categories in exchange for observing certain controls on their selection of leaders and articulation of demands and supports." Schmitter, "Still the century of corporatism?" in Fredrick B. Pike and Thomas Stritch (eds.), The New Corporatism: Social-Political Structures in the Iberian World (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), pp. 93-94. Also see Douglas A. Chalmers, "Corporatism and comparative politics," in Howard J. Wiarda (ed.), New Directions in Comparative Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), pp. 56-79.
7. Ronald Dore, "Japan: a nation made for corporatism?" in Colin Crouch and Ronald Dore (eds.), Corporatism and Accountability: Organized Interests in British Public Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p. 4.
8. Studies of Chinese trade unions and of the foreign-funded enterprise managers' association as examples of corporatism are Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (January 1993), pp. 31-61, and Margaret Pearson, "The Janus face of business associations in China: socialist corporatism in foreign enterprises," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 31 (January 1994), pp. 25-46. An overview analysis of Chinese associations from this perspective is Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, "Corporatism in China: a developmental state in an East Asian context," in Barrett L. McCormick and Jonathan Unger (eds.), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia ? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 95-129; a shorter version appeared in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), pp. 29-53. Also White, "Prospects," pp. 85-86.
9. Studies of Chinese trade unions and of the foreign-funded enterprise managers' association as examples of corporatism are Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (January 1993), pp. 31-61, and Margaret Pearson, "The Janus face of business associations in China: socialist corporatism in foreign enterprises," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 31 (January 1994), pp. 25-46. An overview analysis of Chinese associations from this perspective is Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, "Corporatism in China: a developmental state in an East Asian context," in Barrett L. McCormick and Jonathan Unger (eds.), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia ? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 95-129; a shorter version appeared in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), pp. 29-53. Also White, "Prospects," pp. 85-86.
10. Studies of Chinese trade unions and of the foreign-funded enterprise managers' association as examples of corporatism are Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (January 1993), pp. 31-61, and Margaret Pearson, "The Janus face of business associations in China: socialist corporatism in foreign enterprises," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 31 (January 1994), pp. 25-46. An overview analysis of Chinese associations from this perspective is Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, "Corporatism in China: a developmental state in an East Asian context," in Barrett L. McCormick and Jonathan Unger (eds.), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia ? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 95-129; a shorter version appeared in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), pp. 29-53. Also White, "Prospects," pp. 85-86.
11. Studies of Chinese trade unions and of the foreign-funded enterprise managers' association as examples of corporatism are Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (January 1993), pp. 31-61, and Margaret Pearson, "The Janus face of business associations in China: socialist corporatism in foreign enterprises," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 31 (January 1994), pp. 25-46. An overview analysis of Chinese associations from this perspective is Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, "Corporatism in China: a developmental state in an East Asian context," in Barrett L. McCormick and Jonathan Unger (eds.), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia ? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 95-129; a shorter version appeared in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), pp. 29-53. Also White, "Prospects," pp. 85-86.
12. Studies of Chinese trade unions and of the foreign-funded enterprise managers' association as examples of corporatism are Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (January 1993), pp. 31-61, and Margaret Pearson, "The Janus face of business associations in China: socialist corporatism in foreign enterprises," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 31 (January 1994), pp. 25-46. An overview analysis of Chinese associations from this perspective is Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, "Corporatism in China: a developmental state in an East Asian context," in Barrett L. McCormick and Jonathan Unger (eds.), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia ? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 95-129; a shorter version appeared in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), pp. 29-53. Also White, "Prospects," pp. 85-86.
13. Steven M. Goldstein, "China in transition: the political foundations of incremental reform," The China Quarterly, No. 144 (December 1995), pp. 1124-26.
14. Zhongguo de geti jingji he siying jingji (The Individual and Private Economy of China), a brochure published by the Self-Employed Labourers Association, March 1993, p. 8; also interviews at the Association's national headquarters, 1993; Ole Odgaard, Private Enterprises in Rural China (Aldershot: Avebury, 1992), p. 205.
15. Zhongguo de geti jingji he siying jingji (The Individual and Private Economy of China), a brochure published by the Self-Employed Labourers Association, March 1993, p. 8; also interviews at the Association's national headquarters, 1993; Ole Odgaard, Private Enterprises in Rural China (Aldershot: Avebury, 1992), p. 205.
16. Half a dozen district-level officials were interviewed at length, as well as several officials at levels higher than the district.
17. See J. Bruce Jacobs, "Elections in China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 25 (January 1991), pp. 171-199.
18. On this, see Andrew Walder, Communist Neo-Traditionalism: Work and Authority in Chinese Industry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); also Elizabeth Perry and Lu Xiaobo (eds.), Between State and Society: The Changing Chinese Work-Unit in Historical and Comparative Perspective (forthcoming).
19. On this, see Andrew Walder, Communist Neo-Traditionalism: Work and Authority in Chinese Industry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); also Elizabeth Perry and Lu Xiaobo (eds.), Between State and Society: The Changing Chinese Work-Unit in Historical and Comparative Perspective (forthcoming).
20. See e.g. "Zai Beijing fasheng dongluan, baoluan qijian Dalianshi dui getihu jiaqiang jiaoyu qude chengjiao" ("Success achieved in strengthening education towards the getihu during the period of Beijing turmoil"), in Ding Li (ed.), Zhongguo de geti he siying jingji (China's Petty Entrepreneurial and Privately Managed Economy) (Beijing: Gaige chubanshe, 1990), p. 234, which claims that more than 80% of the getihu in the districts of Dalian city had participated in this direct "propaganda education" within two weeks of the 4 June 1989 massacre.
21. Shi Xianmin, "Getihu yu Beijing chengshi shehui jiegou de fenhua yu zhenghe: Beijingshi Xicheng qu getihu yanjiu" ("Petty entrepreneurs and differentiation and conformity in Beijing's urban social structure: research on the petty entrepreneurs of Beijing's Xicheng district"), Ph.D. dissertation, Beijing University, 1992, p. 175.
22. As just one example, the work of the Party's United Front Department used to have a relatively low status compared to other sectors of the Party bureaucracy, as its mission entailed ongoing contact with non-Party members of politically dubious standing. As the status of these non-Party notables rose markedly under Deng's "opening up" during the 1980s and 1990s, so too did the bureaucratic status of being part of the United Front Department.
23. In Beijing, unlike what has been reported for a number of other locales, corruption in the form of demands by officials for pay-offs does not seem to be a major problem, nor "rip-offs" in the form of officials regularly pocketing excessive fees and fines from getihu. Certainly, this was not reported in my subsequent private interviews with getihu. The type of corruption that they did report involves low-level tax officials, who often accept gifts and meals in exchange for lower tax rates. But in such cases the revenues of the government are adversely affected, not the getihu. Notably, too, the local Bureau/Association officials do not seem to live beyond their means. By chance I attended several social dinners in the same apartment building that several of the district Bureau/Association officials occupy, and neighbours commented approvingly that they do not possess any consumer goods or furnishings beyond what would be expected at their levels of salary. Why this Beijing district differs in terms of corruption from other reported field sites is not altogether clear. On how increasingly corrupt bureaucrats milk the getihu in a district of Chengdu, Sichuan, see Ole Bruun, Business and Bureaucracy in a Chinese City (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1993).
24. Information on Nanjing is based on interviews conducted on my behalf by an acquaintance; the information on Tianjin appears in Christopher E. Nevitt, "Private business associations in China: civil society or tools of local government autonomy?" The China Journal, No. 37 (July 1996); the information on Chengdu derives from Bruun's excellent monograph Business and Bureaucracy in a Chinese City, esp. pp. 112-120. A similar description based on research in the city of Wenzhou is contained in Kristen Parris, "Private entrepreneurs as citizens," paper presented at the 1994 American Political Science Association convention, esp. pp. 31-32.
25. Information on Nanjing is based on interviews conducted on my behalf by an acquaintance; the information on Tianjin appears in Christopher E. Nevitt, "Private business associations in China: civil society or tools of local government autonomy?" The China Journal, No. 37 (July 1996); the information on Chengdu derives from Bruun's excellent monograph Business and Bureaucracy in a Chinese City, esp. pp. 112-120. A similar description based on research in the city of Wenzhou is contained in Kristen Parris, "Private entrepreneurs as citizens," paper presented at the 1994 American Political Science Association convention, esp. pp. 31-32.
26. Information on Nanjing is based on interviews conducted on my behalf by an acquaintance; the information on Tianjin appears in Christopher E. Nevitt, "Private business associations in China: civil society or tools of local government autonomy?" The China Journal, No. 37 (July 1996); the information on Chengdu derives from Bruun's excellent monograph Business and Bureaucracy in a Chinese City, esp. pp. 112-120. A similar description based on research in the city of Wenzhou is contained in Kristen Parris, "Private entrepreneurs as citizens," paper presented at the 1994 American Political Science Association convention, esp. pp. 31-32.
27. Sun Bingyao, "Xiangzhen shetuan yu Zhongguo jiceng shehui" ("Rural township associations and grassroots Chinese society"), Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Science Quarterly) (Hong Kong), No. 9 (autumn 1994), pp. 33, 35. Also see Susan Young, "Private entrepreneurs and evolutionary change," in David Goodman and Beverley Hooper (eds.), China's Quiet Revolution: New Interactions between State and Society (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 117-18; Ole Odgaard, "Entrepreneurs and elite formation in rural China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (July 1992), pp. 99-100. "Leaning to the side of their memberships" may not mean that such rural private proprietors necessarily form a represented constituency per se: rather, some individual proprietors with sufficient resources at their command can make use of the local Association to form beneficial official linkages, while others may feel "burdened by the association," in the words of Ole Odgaard. Odgaard, who has examined a Self-Employed Labourers Association chapter in a Sichuan county, reports that there the association "strengthens controls of most of the private enterprises, while forging alliances with the few very rich and influential entrepreneurs." See Odgaard's book Rural Enterprises in Rural China, pp. 211-12.
28. Sun Bingyao, "Xiangzhen shetuan yu Zhongguo jiceng shehui" ("Rural township associations and grassroots Chinese society"), Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Science Quarterly) (Hong Kong), No. 9 (autumn 1994), pp. 33, 35. Also see Susan Young, "Private entrepreneurs and evolutionary change," in David Goodman and Beverley Hooper (eds.), China's Quiet Revolution: New Interactions between State and Society (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 117-18; Ole Odgaard, "Entrepreneurs and elite formation in rural China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (July 1992), pp. 99-100. "Leaning to the side of their memberships" may not mean that such rural private proprietors necessarily form a represented constituency per se: rather, some individual proprietors with sufficient resources at their command can make use of the local Association to form beneficial official linkages, while others may feel "burdened by the association," in the words of Ole Odgaard. Odgaard, who has examined a Self-Employed Labourers Association chapter in a Sichuan county, reports that there the association "strengthens controls of most of the private enterprises, while forging alliances with the few very rich and influential entrepreneurs." See Odgaard's book Rural Enterprises in Rural China, pp. 211-12.
29. Sun Bingyao, "Xiangzhen shetuan yu Zhongguo jiceng shehui" ("Rural township associations and grassroots Chinese society"), Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Science Quarterly) (Hong Kong), No. 9 (autumn 1994), pp. 33, 35. Also see Susan Young, "Private entrepreneurs and evolutionary change," in David Goodman and Beverley Hooper (eds.), China's Quiet Revolution: New Interactions between State and Society (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 117-18; Ole Odgaard, "Entrepreneurs and elite formation in rural China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (July 1992), pp. 99-100. "Leaning to the side of their memberships" may not mean that such rural private proprietors necessarily form a represented constituency per se: rather, some individual proprietors with sufficient resources at their command can make use of the local Association to form beneficial official linkages, while others may feel "burdened by the association," in the words of Ole Odgaard. Odgaard, who has examined a Self-Employed Labourers Association chapter in a Sichuan county, reports that there the association "strengthens controls of most of the private enterprises, while forging alliances with the few very rich and influential entrepreneurs." See Odgaard's book Rural Enterprises in Rural China, pp. 211-12.
30. Sun Bingyao, "Xiangzhen shetuan yu Zhongguo jiceng shehui" ("Rural township associations and grassroots Chinese society"), Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Science Quarterly) (Hong Kong), No. 9 (autumn 1994), pp. 33, 35. Also see Susan Young, "Private entrepreneurs and evolutionary change," in David Goodman and Beverley Hooper (eds.), China's Quiet Revolution: New Interactions between State and Society (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 117-18; Ole Odgaard, "Entrepreneurs and elite formation in rural China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28 (July 1992), pp. 99-100. "Leaning to the side of their memberships" may not mean that such rural private proprietors necessarily form a represented constituency per se: rather, some individual proprietors with sufficient resources at their command can make use of the local Association to form beneficial official linkages, while others may feel "burdened by the association," in the words of Ole Odgaard. Odgaard, who has examined a Self-Employed Labourers Association chapter in a Sichuan county, reports that there the association "strengthens controls of most of the private enterprises, while forging alliances with the few very rich and influential entrepreneurs." See Odgaard's book Rural Enterprises in Rural China, pp. 211-12.
31. Three getihu were formally interviewed through prior appointments made with the help of mutual acquaintances. In addition, more than a dozen others were approached informally at their stalls in open-air markets and at rented shops in working-class neighbourhoods and up-market shopping areas, and were "chatted up" at length in what Tom Gold refers to as "guerrilla interviewing." Thomas Gold, "Guerrilla interviewing among the getihu," in Perry Link (ed.), Unofficial China - Popular Culture and Thought in the People's Republic (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989), pp. 179-192.
32. This friction of distance has in turn given rise to a relocation by small-scale garment manufacturers to Beijing to service the local market directly, and consequently a number of large so-called Zhejiang villages (Zhejiang province is China's major clothing producer for the domestic market) have sprung up semi-illicitly in the rural outskirts of Beijing.
33. Zhang Wenwei, "Shilun dui geti jingji de yindao he guanli" ("Preliminary discussion on the guidance and management of the self-employed sector of the economy"), Shehui kexue (Social Science), No. 5 (1992), p. 14.
34. A 1989 survey by Rosemary Bannan of street vendors in Beijing found that fully 48% of the 198 surveyed had previously been farmers, 18% had been workers, 13% had been at school, 13% had been unemployed, and 4% had been housewives, demobilized soldiers, etc. Bannan, "Little China: street vending in the free market, 1989," Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. VIII, No. 2 (July 1992), p. 150.
35. From a Chinese-language pamphlet on the Democratic Parties and the Federation, published in March 1993 by the secretariat of the CPPCC, p. 24.
36. As a United Front Department official declared in a 1991 speech, the Federation "has always been a united-front people's organization, rather than chiefly an economic organization or a department supervised directly by the government. Although it is not a Democratic Party and has no political program, like the Democratic Parties it participates in politics and has a place in the political system" (Issues & Studies, Vol. 30, No. 7 (July 1994), p. 125).
37. Gongshang jie (World of Industry & Commerce), magazine published by the Beijing chapter of the Federation, November 1993, p. 6.
38. This new regulation was laid out in Zhongfa no. 15. See Issues & Studies, Vol. 30, No. 7 (July 1994), pp. 125, 127.
39. This new regulation was laid out in Zhongfa no. 15. See Issues & Studies, Vol. 30, No. 7 (July 1994), pp. 125, 127.
40. Zhongguo gongshang lianhehui zhangcheng (Constitution of the Chinese Federation of Industry & Commerce), pamphlet printed by the Beijing branch of the Federation, 1994, p. 2.
41. Agence France Presse dispatch from Beijing, 21 October 1994.
42. China News Digest (internet service), 6 December, 1995. It is entitled the Minsneng Bank.
43. I am grateful to David Wank for originally bringing this aspect to my attention in a private communication. He has found such tendencies in his study of associations in Xiamen, and notes that the entrepreneurs there perceive Party organizations as being more willing to comply with the Party's line in favour of "raising the status of private business" and "protecting the legal rights of private businesspeople" in contrast to the Bureau's emphasis on its own regulatory and disciplinary functions and fees. On this distinction, also see Kristen Parris, "Local initiative and national reform: the Wenzhou model of development," The China Quarterly, No. 134 (June 1993), p. 261. On Xiamen, see David L. Wank, "Private business, bureaucracy, and political alliance in a Chinese city," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), p. 60.
44. I am grateful to David Wank for originally bringing this aspect to my attention in a private communication. He has found such tendencies in his study of associations in Xiamen, and notes that the entrepreneurs there perceive Party organizations as being more willing to comply with the Party's line in favour of "raising the status of private business" and "protecting the legal rights of private businesspeople" in contrast to the Bureau's emphasis on its own regulatory and disciplinary functions and fees. On this distinction, also see Kristen Parris, "Local initiative and national reform: the Wenzhou model of development," The China Quarterly, No. 134 (June 1993), p. 261. On Xiamen, see David L. Wank, "Private business, bureaucracy, and political alliance in a Chinese city," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (January 1995), p. 60.
45. This information derives from an interview with a national Federation official.
46. Zhonghua gongshang shibao (China Industrial & Commercial Times), 14 April 1995, p. 6.
47. Ibid.